Children's Games in Street and Playground: Chasing, Catching, Seeking, Hunting, Racing, Dueling, Exerting, Daring, Guessing, Acting, and Pretending. [Hardcover]

Iona Opie (Author), the late Peter Opie (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 15, 1969

Perhaps this book should come with a warning to parents: within these pages, children deliberately scare each other, ritually hurt each other, take foolish risks, promote fights, and play ten against one. And yet throughout, they consistently observe their own sense of fair play. 'During the past fifty years, shelf-loads of books have been written instructing children in the games they ought to play - and some even instructing adults on how to instruct children in the games they ought to play - but few attempts have been made to record the games children in fact play.' This was Iona and Peter Opie's pertinent observation in 1969, and it was this gap that they sought to fill with their exhaustive survey, through the 1960s, of the games that children 'in fact play' aged roughly between six and twelve years of age, and when outdoors - and usually out of sight. The Opies weren't interested in formal games and sports supervised by parents or teachers. What excited them were the rough-and-tumble games for which, as one child described, 'nothing is needed but the players themselves.' They were also anxious that, in their meticulous recording of the games, the spirit of the play, the zest, variety and disorderliness, should not be lost. The result was their classic work "Children's Games in Street and Playground". To aid a clear and lively presentation of their remarkable study, the original single book has been divided into two. Both volumes record games played in the street, park, playground and wasteland of more than 10,000 children from the Shetland Isles to the Channel Islands, although the majority of the information comes from children living in big cities such as London, Liverpool, Bristol and Glasgow. This second volume focuses on games involving seeking, hunting, racing, duelling, exerting, daring, guessing, acting and pretending. More than 85 games are described in detail including the rhymes and saying children repeat while playing them, together with the different names under which they are played. Brief historical notes are also included where relevant. The children of the 1960s, the Opies noted, are often thought 'to be incapable of self-organization, and to have become addicted to spectator amusements.' to the extent that adults must be relied on to provide play materials, ideas and time to play with them. The same attitudes are still widespread today with our concerns about television and computer games, and the middle-class parental impulse to fill our children's days with organised classes and play dates. 'However much children may need looking after, they are also people going about their own business within their own society.' There are important lessons to be learned from this book about giving children the time and physical space to be themselves with other children.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'The Opies have compiled the most complete and the most sympathetic, also the most sensible account of what children prefer to do on their own.' -- Country Life 'It is a work of serious anthropology and sociology ... but unlike most works concerned with these disciplines, it is consistently readable, always humane, and sometimes very funny.' -- New Statesman 'A fascinating book, the product of many years' immensely detailed and original research, which is bound to become the standard work upon the history and modern practice of street games.' -- New Society 'Fascinating research ... I hope that the publication of this book will revive the debate about the kinds of games our children play.' -- David Lorimer, Scientific and Medical Network Review --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Iona Archibald Opie was born in 1923. During the Second World War, she met and married Peter Opie. Together they became a renowned husband-and-wife team of folklorists with a particular interest in children's toys, games and literature, working from their home in Hampshire and conducting primary fieldwork all over the United Kingdom. Their remarkable collection of children's books and ephemera was purchased by the Bodleian Library in Oxford in 1988. They were the authors of over 30 books including The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (1952) and The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren (1959). Iona Opie lives in Hampshire. Peter Mason Opie (1918-1982) was a specialist in children's literature. He met and married Iona Archibold during the Second World War, and together they became a renowned husband-and-wife team of folklorists with a particular interest in children's toys, games and literature, working from their home in Hampshire and conducting primary fieldwork all over the United Kingdom. Their remarkable collection of children's books and ephemera was purchased by the Bodleian Library in Oxford in 1988. They were the authors of over 30 books including The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes (1952) and The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren (1959). --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; Text is Free of Markings edition (November 15, 1969)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0198272103
• ISBN-13: 978-0198272106
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,945,642 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Actual observations of how real kids play, November 21, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Children's Games in Street and Playground: Chasing, Catching, Seeking, Hunting, Racing, Dueling, Exerting, Daring, Guessing, Acting, and Pretending. (Oxford Paperback Reference) (Paperback)

This book will help you regain your faith in children and respect for their games. It has been the cornerstone of my work for twenty years. It should not be out of print. Accurate, honest, direct observations of children at play, without the constraints of adult supervision, outside the boundaries of their playgrounds.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Some information about the book..., January 14, 2008

By 

Redabook "Matt" (Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Children's Games in Street and Playground (Hardcover)

This is an interesting book that talks about the different kinds of games that children play, all categorized and analyzed. You are sure to find some of your favorites as well as discover some you've never heard of. Here are some reviews about this title, in case you are interested in learning more about it:

"On the surface it is an exhaustive record of the games children play when out in the street, park, playground, or wasteland, but the book, for the general reader, is primarily a journey, not so much into nostalgia, as into a sharper recollection of the uncramped imagination and brilliant nightmare of childhood."--the Guardian

"What these two remarkable authors do is understand the actual playing, the actual delight of children's games. Somewhere in the 350 pages of this book you are sure to find the game you liked the best in your own childhood. It will be there in all its varieties, under its various names, indexed, classified and described, presented as a living thing, not as a curio, and not as something out of the antique shop of folklore."--Country life.